CHARTER TO SAVE OUR NHS

Save our NHS

20% more by 2020

A CHARTER FOR OUR NHS

The NHS is struggling. We can all see that funding is not keeping pace with inflation and demand. Staffing shortages and unsafe working conditions mean more and more experienced staff are leaving and are not being replaced fast enough. We face longer waits for treatment. Local services that are working well are threatened. Your safety and care is being compromised

Our NHS cannot be saved without more money. That’s why we’re asking the Government to commit to increasing funding by 20%, by 2020.

Because our NHS:

Must put the health and care of the public above short-term cost savings or private profit.

Must be caring, safe, and see people in reasonable time

Must continue to be available for future generations.

Must have enough nurses, doctors and other staff. Safe staffing must be introduced across the UK, so that every health and care setting has the right number of staff, with the right qualifications and skills.

Must recognise our mental health is as important as our physical health. The NHS should devote as much attention to staffing, funding, and improving mental health services as it does elsewhere

Must value, train, and support its staff at all levels. All staff must be properly paid and given time to train and retrain, including for any new roles

Must protect good local services.

Should not permit private companies to select profitable parts of the service, undermining publicly provided ones; there must be an end to “Cherry Picking” of the NHS by profit making companies.

Must be able to learn from its mistakes to prevent them happening again. It must be able to own up when something has gone wrong, without staff fearing they will have to take the blame for wider failings outside their control.

Our NHS must continue to be available to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, and must be comprehensive.

When our understaffed, over-stretched NHS services can’t treat us as well as they ought to, and as well as they’d like, they risk receiving critical reports from the Care Quality Commission. They and their patients pay the price for the system failing.

Isn’t it time the Government, and its decisions about our NHS, came under the same scrutiny?